The 10th Annual Russian Heritage Festival continues its commitment to showcasing the achievements of NY’s Russian-speaking community, as well as educating all of New York’s  communities about Russian culture and heritage.  Over 20 diverse events will take place during the month of June and showcase hundreds of professional and community based artists, performers, and cultural ambassadors. RAF’s ongoing collaboration with Russia’s Ministry of Culture, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, St. Petersburg Museum of Ethnography, and NYC’s YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, will enable NY audiences to experience culturally significant and rich exhibits such as: A New Dream, American Artists Gift to the Autonomous Region in the Soviet Union, The Jews of Tsarist Russia, Masterpieces from Cherkassy Art Museum, and many others.  And of course, the annual Together in New York Community Festival will showcase hundreds of NY’s community youth performers and groups in their celebration of their heritage and culture. The heritage festival will take place June 1st through the 26th. For more information, please visit our Russian Heritage Festival page.

Do not miss your chance to see the magnificent Ukranian Avant-Garde Art: The Odessan Parisians Exhibit, starting its world tour in New York this week! The exhibit comprises paintings from the distinguished collection of Boris Fuchsmann, Andrey Adamovski and Alexander Suslenski. It was believed that many paintings were lost during the years of Russian Revolution and the Civil War, until they were recently discovered.  The paintings on view were all completed in the early 20th century by the leading members of the ‘Society of Independent Artists,’ or ‘Odessan Parisians,’ including Amshei Nurenberg, Micail Gershenfeld, Isaac Malik, Theophil Fraerman, Sigismund Olesevich and Israel Mexin. Their very name-the ‘Independents’-suggests their independence from traditional artistic movements. Indeed, parallels have been drawn between them and the French ‘Société des Indépendants.” The Independents were dubbed “Odessan Parisians” by one critic, referring to the artistic inspiration they drew from Matisse, Gauguin, Cézanne and Van Gogh. The exhibit is co-curated by Marina Kovalyov, President of RAF and member of the National Arts Club, and Sonya Bekkerman, Senior VP, Russian Paintings at Sotheby’s New York. ONGOING: January 31 – February 11, 2012, 10AM-5PM at the National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003. Tel: (212) 475-3424).

Russian American Foundation and the renowned Bolshoi Ballet Academy are offering U.S. students the ability to compete for a place at the iconic Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, as part of the Summer Intensive 2012.  Of those selected 15 high-school students will be offered a life-changing opportunity to spend 6 weeks during summer of 2012 in Moscow on a full scholarship, as part of the NSLI-Y program funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Additionally, one male and one female dancer, ages 9-22, will also be selected at the end of the program and will be offered a training and a performing scholarship in Moscow by the Russian American Foundation.  Students in 16 cities audition to train with Master Teachers from Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet Academy, one of the oldest and the most respected ballet institution in the world.  “We are offering top American ballet students the opportunity to train with Academy’s master teachers,” says Rina Kirshner, vice president of the Russian American Foundation. “Those teachers have trained some of ballet’s most famous stars such as Natalia Osipova, Polina Semionova, Alexei Ratmansky, Maria Kochetkova, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and many others.”  In 2011, ABT’s principal dancer David Hallberg made international headlines and ballet history by becoming the first American dancer to enlist permanently with the Bolshoi Ballet.  In his youth, David Hallberg trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Youth program in U.S. To register and to see the auditions dates click here.